The Palace Armoury was closed to visitors last week due to work being carried out on the Valletta Market Square.

Visitors from cruise liners had to forego a visit to the Armoury and the Palace, a staple of such visits, and had to queue in the sun as they waited to enter St John’s Co-Cathedral.

Usually, the tour guides split them into groups, alternating between the two venues.

Informed sources told this newspaper that the original plan had been for the Palace back door to be closed and for visitors to the Armoury to enter by the first of the Palace front doors, the one where the Attorney General parks his car.

Contacts with Heritage Malta began some two years ago, before the publication of the White Paper, but for one reason or another, nothing has been done so far and the result is loss of visitors to the Armoury and further pressure on St John’s.